"Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado"
Intrepid motorists are richly rewarded on Rocky Mountain National Park's Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the United States.
Topping out at 12,183 feet, the byway snakes through fragile alpine tundra, giving visitors a chance to witness the unique ecosystem without the huffing and puffing of high-elevation hiking.
Eleven miles of the 48-mile route traverse wide-open expanses above the treeline, where at 11,500 feet evergreen forests give way to 200 species of ground-hugging alpine plants.
Yellow-bellied marmot, bighorn sheep, pika and summering elk go about their business as breathless tourists open their car doors at the Alpine Visitor Center, the highest visitor center in the park system, to blasts of cool air.
Temperatures at the road's blustery summit are usually 20 to 30 degrees lower than they are at the road's bookends in Grand Lake and Estes Park.
